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By now, you’ve heard it everywhere: Today’s college graduates
face a job crunch the likes of which young Americans have not
faced since the Great Depression.

It’s a perfect storm of negative circumstances for 20-somethings:
a sluggish economy, a record number of college graduates seeking
white-collar work and a recent financial crisis that wiped out
the retirement savings of older workers, preventing their jobs
from turning over on schedule. By all accounts, the supply of
professional jobs comes nowhere close to meeting the demand of
young job
seekers.

What most people aren’t talking about, however, is the other side
of the supply and demand curve. When jobs are in short supply,
it's a great time to be a supplier. And with so many qualified,
ambitious young people out of work, small businesses have a
once-in-a-generation opportunity to recruit from a
large pool of top talent.

It’s a matter of simple trickle-down capitalism. The most
desirable entry-level jobs -- the positions at Fortune 500
companies that have traditionally attracted the top graduates of
elite universities -- are tougher to come as a result of lower
retirement rates, industry losses and slow growth, leaving the
best and brightest graduates to set their sights on second-tier
opportunities.

The effects of the job crunch cascade down the line of graduates,
making thousands of young people available to employers that they
may not have considered otherwise. In 2000, success meant Wall
Street or a dotcom firm. Today, it’s just having a job.

This should be music to the ears of entrepreneurs. Bright young
college graduates are willing to take a chance on small
businesses and startups. Now, it’s your turn to take a chance on
them, even though the risks of hiring in an economy where capital
remains tight can be substantial.

The decision to hire a 22-year-old without a lot of work
experience isn’t one that's likely to lead to short-term profits.
Employers can find it a more time-intensive effort to bring a new
graduate up to speed as opposed to onboarding someone who knows
their way around the workplace. But when this activity is viewed
as an investment, finding the right young person in this job
market can be a decision that pays dividends for years.

Young people bring energy, ambition, fresh ideas and familiarity
with modern technology to workplaces. They also represent blank
slates of sorts for small business owners, as they haven’t been
socialized to follow the practices of another company and aren’t
set into routines or working styles that more seasoned hires may
have a difficult time of shedding. Hiring an employee directly
out of school gives employers the opportunity to shape a person's
professional growth and development -- an experience that can be
rewarding on both a personal and monetary level.

Members of this generation of young people, undoubtedly shaped by
the job crunch, have also proved to be exceedingly loyal to their
employers, reducing a certain amount of risk by increasing the
probability that employers will be able to recoup their
onboarding costs.

Tom Nearny, CEO of United States Liability Insurance Group of
Wayne, Penn., hires new graduates every year. He recently told
The Philadelphia
Inquirer that his retention rate in recent years has
been near 100 percent. Of the experience of working with
young people, he said, "It helps me learn how they see things,
how they hear things, how they understand our culture. It
helps fuels things. I’ve just been amazed at how much talent
there is.”

Politicians have repeated ad nauseum that small businesses and
entrepreneurs are the engines that drive job creation. And with
the 1.8 million members of the class of 2014 hitting the streets
this month, this is entrepreneurs' opportunity to be a part of
that engine. The road to recovery begins when entrepreneurs take
risks, and the buyer’s market for youth employment has never been
hotter.